Clunie v. Siebe

Harrison, J. Application for a writ of mandamus. The petitioner seeks by this proceeding to compel the respondent, who is the assessor of the city and county of San Francisco, to assess the property of the Market Street Railway Company as required by sections 3648 and 3649 of the Political Code, upon the ground that said property escaped assessment and taxation for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1895, by reason of misrepresentations of the officers of said corporation as to the value of said property. It is alleged in the petition that the said corporation, on the first Monday of March, 1895, was, and thence hitherto has been, the owner of certain real and personal property situated in the city and county of San Francisco, subject to taxation, and [595]that said property has been during all of said time of the actual cash value of $17,500,000, and would have been taken in payment of a just debt due from said corporation for that sum of money; that between the first Mondays of March and July of the year 1895 said corporation, through its officers and agents, willfully and falsely represented to the respondent, while he was endeavoring to ascertain the full cash value of said property, in order that he might assess the same for the purposes of taxation for said fiscal year, that the full cash value of said property did not exceed the sum of $3,883,866; that, in fact, said officers and agents of said corporation then knew that the said property was of the value of $17,500,000, and that said representations were made with the design and for the purpose of evading taxation upon said property for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1895; that the respondent, as such assessor, assessed the property for that fiscal year at the sum of $3,883,866; that, in fixing the amount of said assessment, he relied upon the statements made to him by the officers and agents of said corporation, and that by reason of their misrepresentations he was induced to assess the property at that valuation, instead of its actual value, and that thereby said corporation escaped taxation for that fiscal year upon the sum of $13,616,134, the difference between the full value of said property and the amount for which it -was assessed; that the respondent is now engaged in assessing property in said city and county of San Francisco for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1896, and has been notified by the petitioner that said corporation escaped taxation as aforesaid for the preceding fiscal year, and has been demanded to assess the same as provided by sections 3648 and 3649 of the Political Code, and that, unless directed by the mandate of this court, he will not comply with this demand.